Chapter Fourteen #6
When his tablet chimed, he pulled it up. On it, there was a short string of people who they’d tagged as working for the man. It wasn’t the full list, but it was a start.
“I’m just going through it now, to see if I can pinpoint who is the best option. Those four people live in the area where you are and likely helped him.”
He got the information and checked it out.
Yeah, he appreciated that.
“One of them would need to be a poison expert, and one good with explosives. A car bomb, specifically, and a poison called Aconite.”
Rogue made notes.
“I’ll reach out to Remmy to see if any of them specialized in that. Calyx too. We will see if any of the four on the list have done other jobs like that.”
He was grateful.
Gene was also curious.
“How did you find them? Were they that easy to locate?” he asked, knowing that wasn’t the norm.
Maura shared what Rogue had found out.
“Your killer is using an alias, and not a good one. He likely thought he was safe on the Dark Web. Spoiler, he’s not.
We put out a little money, and the kind of things that were being done, and we got feedback, so to speak.
Mercenaries will yap if the money is good.
Anyway, we found the four names that he contacted.
It’ll be one of them—or in this case, two of them. ”
Gene was curious. Something she said piqued his interest. Now, he had to know.
“What name did he use?”
Rogue shared.
“There are four mercenaries that were offered a lot of money by a Slater J Devon,” he stated.
“In the shady world, people remember names. It’s like networking for the bad guys.
As soon as he showed up on the scene, he was tagged as new—or likely a cop.
That raised all kinds of suspicion. There are FBI stings on the Dark Web all of the time.
All I had to do was ask who the newest player was and offer up some money to get them to tell us who he spoke to. Thus, the list of four.”
He was grateful.
He was also stupefied how the man just switched his names around.
After all of these cryptic clues, had he really just been that oblivious?
Or did he not think Elizabeth would troll the Dark Web to see what was out there?
Boy, had he miscalculated. He must not have intel on The Hunters.
Thank.
Freaking.
God.
“Yeah, that’s his name, flipped. He’s not that damn smart, or he didn’t think we’d have access to the seedier side of things. Let’s hope he sticks with that jackassery. It might save our bacon.”
Well, from his mouth to the universe’s ears.
The easier they were to catch, the sooner they could head back to New Orleans. They had The BlackStone Group to take down.
“Elizabeth is known for being a Fed. People will assume she’s not going to go dark side. Only, she’s as dark side as they come when it’s about certain things,” Maura stated.
Yeah, he was aware.
That definitely made him believe that he wouldn’t see The Hunters coming. If he believed Elizabeth was a goodie-two-shoes, he was about to get huge wakeup call.
Now, Gene was curious.
“Can you get intel on him as you work on narrowing down that list? Like how to pin him down?”
Rogue was honest.
“We’re trying, but Mercenaries will talk for money when it comes to certain things.
Ratting someone out as to where their hidey-hole is…
that’s a big no-no, and you know that, Gene.
Worse comes to worst, we’ll have to talk to all four if I can’t narrow it down.
What would be helpful is if we could get our hands on something like an account to backtrace. ”
He was aware.
Only, that was easier said than done.
“We have a phone number. It’s from Devon, we think. His other helpers, who he offed, by the way, were likely contacted by him. It’s the ONLY odd number in the phone, and what are the chances that the minister and his wife have a friend out here?”
Good point.
That was a definite long shot when it came to a coincidence.
Rogue had an idea.
“Give it to me.”
He did.
As Rogue ran it, they all held their breaths.
“What’s he running it against?” Gene asked. “MATE didn’t have it in her system. I know you guys use her, too.”
Maura answered as Rogue was working.
“We have a big network of names at our disposal.”
Gene laughed.
“So Calyx gave you her little black book of fun, huh?” he asked, busting ass.
Jagger snickered.
“I mean, yeah, but can you not be so in our face about it? We gotta have secrets too, Fed.”
Yeah, he supposed they did. Just because they worked for Elizabeth, and the US government, didn’t mean they needed to share all the secrets.
As Rogue was running it, Zayn was curious.
“My dude, do you miss us?” he asked, since they had a few minutes of lag time.
Gene didn’t hesitate.
“I miss the people, not the job. You guys are always on my mind, and I wish I could have both of my families together, but we know that’s not possible. Half of us wear badges, and half of us…don’t.”
Zayn was to the point.
“We miss you. Maybe come visit,” he said. “You have a few nephews and nieces,” he offered, making sure the man knew how they all felt about him.
Gene may have left, but he was still their brother. That would never change.
Oh, well, if they were going to offer, he was going to take them up on that.
“I tell you what. I’ll come see you guys once we get through this. Right now, we feel like we’re about to get our shit rocked. All of us on lockdown is not pretty. We’re all twitchy and getting bitchy.”
Oh, they bet.
When Rogue cleared his throat, he told them the bad news.
“No-go on our end. That’s an extensive list of mercenaries and their contacts. It didn’t pop for us. It’s likely a burner.”
Well, shit.
That was a strike against them. Now, they needed the names on the list to be valid—and helpful.
“Do you have a way to trace location? MATE is still working on it.”
He shook his head.
That was strike two on that phone number that had been in the dead minister’s phone.
Well, shit.
The boss knew what that meant.
“We’re going to have to interrogate the people involved to see if we can get a lead,” Maura stated. “I can feel it in my gut.”
No one argued that.
Gene sighed.
“It’s still shitty that we might not get to this guy. He’s really had a long time to plan this out. Twenty years, or so, is a big time frame to lay hidey-holes all over the place.”
Yeah, it really was, but if he was in deep, that was a definite possibility.
Gene was curious.
“Since the people trying to poison and blow us up is a no-go, yet, how about this? Have you by any chance heard of any Mercenaries doing high-paying jobs in Corpus Christi, and DC in the last day or two? They are the ones who took out the people helping Devon set up the crime scenes. We think he was training accomplices.”
Rogue looked up.
“Uh, yeah, actually, I have. There were high-dollar hits called out stateside. Do you think that’s connected?”
Everyone looked over at Rogue.
“What?” he asked. “My wife is a Snake. She is always checking out jobs. I then have to throw sex at her to distract her. Don’t judge me.”
Zayn went there.
“I knew you had to tie the lady down. That seems like your MO, Playboy. No self-respecting lady is falling for your shit. Jinxy tolerates you because she’s easily amused.”
At that, he flipped him off.
“Remember when you were making dress cutouts for Stella’s picture, you pussy?” he asked, referring to the first time they all saw Stella being held hostage for ransom.
It had been their first case.
When he opened his mouth, Maura stopped him.
“Zayn Ezekiel Thomas Richard Thundercloud. Don’t do it!”
The man laughed.
“You can’t government name me, when THOSE AREN’T MY GOVERNMENT NAMES! You only got two!”
Well, it did what she’d needed. They were distracted and not bickering.
So, she winked at him.
“Just behave.”
Gene ignored them since he was accustomed to the jackassery that went down when they were all in a room together.
That was the most normal thing about The Hunters.
Boys had to be boys.
Unless there was a lady around to whip them into shape.
“That’s going to be tied to ours,” he stated. “The one in DC was two targets, a minister and his wife. The COD was sliced throats.”
Yeah, that was what he’d heard.
It was a fast hit, with a high-dollar payout.
“When a job gets done, you know the hive talks about it. There are a couple names floating around that are likely the ones who did it. What was the other?” Rogue asked.
He shared.
“An ME who works for the city in Corpus Christi—also a slit throat.”
Yeah, that matched up to the details they’d overheard. Remmy had picked up the chatter first and foremost, and then filtered it to Jinx, to see if she wanted to handle it.
His wife liked to keep busy when The Hunters were having downtime. A quick hit like that brought in millions, and that was how they kept their family funded.
“Yeah, that’s the other. Remmy keeps us in the loop in case someone is gunning for Mikey O’. It was definitely over a million to do it.”
Well, hot damn.
They had confirmation that it was clean up in Aisle Cuckoo. They were onto Devon, and at some point, they’d have him locked down.
The one thing he knew was The Hunters wouldn’t have time to go after them, too. They had to focus on Devon. He was Elizabeth’s main target.
That was priority one.
Because she knew the man well, and they’d lived, worked, and played together, Maura knew what he was going to ask.
“If you want them done, too, we’re going to need time. Logistically, we can’t be all over the place, and we work better as a team. We can add them on for later.”
Oh, they definitely had to be taken down. They would have intel on Devon. He likely contacted them by phone. At some point, he might screw up, and they could backtrack that to him.
If they wanted Gabby to hack, she needed something to use first, and foremost.
Yeah, then, it hit Gene.
He knew a way to kill all the bad birdies with lots of stones. The Hunters were busy, but they also had some Snakes.
Since Rogue just said his wife kept her ear out for other jobs, this might be a good one for her.
Ironic, but good.